BERNARDS – The sentence has become a cliché, but still holds true. Skyland Conference baseball can bring nightmares every day, no matter a team’s record.

Hunterdon Central raised its record to 16-1 on Wednesday as it outlasted Ridge 6-4 in a match of Skyland division leaders. Hunterdon Central, winner of eight straight, is 9-0 in Delaware Division play that includes crossover games with the Raritan Division. Ridge (9-3) leads the Raritan Division with a 6-3 record ahead of Phillipsburg (8-6, 4-3) and North Hunterdon (8-7, 4-4).

Hunterdon Central kept its focus despite having a Thursday divisional showdown with second-place Immaculata (12-1, 9-1). Immaculata has won 11-straight since a 12-9 loss to the Red Devils on April 9.

"Right now the goal is to win the conference and win the county," Hunterdon Central coach Kevin Cuozzi said. "The full goal now is not to lose (Thursday)."

Hunterdon Central’s latest victory wasn’t easy, but the Red Devils took advantage of four Ridge errors. The eventual game-winning run came across in the sixth as result of a two-out infield error.

Hunterdon Central also got a fine relief effort from sophomore lefty and winning pitcher Ben Iervolino. He went 2 1/3 innings, allowed one run on three hits and walked one in relief of junior righty starter Ryan Fischer.

Senior right-hander Jake Jones got two outs in the seventh for the save. Jones entered the game just after Anthony Roth’s RBI single cut the deficit to 6-4. Cuozzi first brought in lefty Joey DeChario, but after several warm-up throws DeChario was replaced by Jones. Cuozzi said he wanted to see what batter Ridge coach Tom Blackwell would counter with. Jones got two fly outs to center and left to end it.

Just another day in the life of the rock-em-sock-em Skyland.

"It’s always a tough day in the Skyland Conference. We never look at a team and say, 'Hey this is an easy game today.' We go into it like it’s a state championship game and you have to get the small things done in order to win," Cuozzi said. "That’s how we took it today and that’s how we will take it tomorrow. There were some mistakes here and there, but we stopped the bleeding for the most part in big situations."

The Ridge fifth inning was a good example. The Red Devils scored three runs, tying the game 3-3 on Devin Stieglitz’s RBI single. Ridge could have scored more as Chris Seebode and Sean Spina both followed with walks to load the bases, but Fischer got a ground out to end the threat.

Senior Garrison LeGros’ two-out, two-run single to center in the sixth drove in Dan Icaza and Nick Czarnecki for a 6-3 Hunterdon Central lead and Iervolino limited Ridge.